Looking through the books at hand, I saw that each one carried the legally required caveat “this should not be used without proper supervision by a medical professional.” In other words, do not partake of this knowledge without first getting the blessing of your specific oracle.
This caused me to think more deeply about what I was doing and the hierarchy in which I was taking part.
The first thought that occurred to me was “Whose health is it anyway?” The second thought that occurred to me was “Why should I assume that the doctor knows more about my health than I do?”
Some years ago, I had a heart attack. At the time, I smoked between 2 ½ and four packs of cigarettes per day, ate almost nothing but fast food, and my more strenuous exercise was getting in and out of my car. The Cardiologist in charge of my case never catherized me to see what damage was done or what arteries were blocked, to other than the fact that we had prevented complete cardiac failure, we knew little more than before.
About five years ago, I went in to have that cath, and, not to my surprise, at least, we found that I had two arteries blocked. They were angioplastied and stented. Upon my release from the hospital, the doctor – excuse me, the Cardiologist – informed me that I would have to be on three types of drugs for the rest of my life.
“How do you know?” I asked.
There was a stunned look on his face. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, how do you know that I need these medications? What are they for and what is there purpose?”
It turned out that one was for blood pressure, one was a blood thinner and the third was to lower my heart rate.
“First of all, my blood pressure is, and has been for the past seven years, in the close neighborhood of 120/70. I take an aspirin every day which is, by the AMA’s own literature, the best blood thinner you can get, and my heart rate, at rest, is in the low 60s. Now, you didn’t know that did you?”
The Cardiologist didn’t see the relevance.
“The relevance is,” I told him, “is that I don’t need your medications. My body is functioning at the level you want it to do without using them. So, why would you just off-handedly prescribe them?”
“We do that in every case,” he said. “It’s standard procedure.”
Here began a half-hour discussion about how medicine is not a “general” pursuit. It is a very personal and very intimate pursuit and is not one in which Standard Operating Procedures can truly apply.
He disagreed, of course.
Finally, I asked the question he really didn’t want me to ask:
